From bad to worse
Abdulla Sabir
Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki’s meeting in Kirkuk proved that some Kurdish leaders either have forgotten household management, or have never done it. That’s why they could not manage the Kurds’ house. If Kirkuk, which they consider as their Jerusalem and heart was their house, then they would not leave it. They would stay with the ‘guests’ until they would leave.
Even for one day, Maliki was the householder in Kirkuk. Kurdish leaders left, as they were shy about this. When Maliki went, a Kurdish envoy consisting of the same number of ministers and led by the deputy PM visited Kirkuk.
In an effort to save his party’s general secretary and himself from embarrassment, they announced that he had come based on a decision and guidance of the Kurdistan region’s president.
It’s been happening in the Kurdish history many times where two youths find themselves in a quarrel. The one who tries to reconcile visits the other. If the other one was not ready to reconcile, he would hide himself somewhere on the roof and his family would had said he was not home. But the reality was he was not ready to reconcile and he was not daring enough to say he was not ready and he had cut his connections.
The Kurdish ministers in the PM Maliki cabinet should have attended the meetings.
Politics is like a business; it’s an art.
The best business person is the one who always smiles to his customers, and not the one who is shutting down his when the slightest tension faces him. The Kurdish leadership was never skillful in finding friends as much as in making enemies.
The Kurdish leadership may not know how to deal with Baghdad in a diplomatic way. For one simple reason: They do not aim at people and land while dealing with them.
Since 2003, the Kurdish leadership including the president of Iraq, the deputy PM, the deputy parliament speaker, some MPs is always the first in putting forth efforts to manage the Iraqi households, but they have forgotten their own house as the tensions have already appeared.
The arguments are always on budget 17-13%, and oil. They take Kirkuk oil into account and not its people. They demand a specific law for oil and gas, for a budget portion for Peshmarga (Kurdish forces), and the other things are always under compromise, even the right to self-determination. The people of Kirkuk know very well how their life is under two security forces. How basic services such as water, electricity, fuel, education, health and human rights have embarrassed the governor. Maliki knows these facts very well, and that’s why he is careless.
What sort of a tough attitude have they had on Article 140, as they did for the oil contracts?
Anyway, Nejmadin Karim, the Kirkuk governor as a technocrat governor and a neurologist was the only one staying in the field. He knows what illnesses have affected the Kurdish leadership’s mind, and otherwise he would also be dragged away, so he could not attend the meetings of the Iraqi PM and his cabinet.
Not only the Kurdish politicians, but also the Kurdish media was not present at the meetings. Why do they kick their own wages by attending? The chess game of the Kurdish media is also in the hands of Kasparov and Karbov, as they decide to move them any time. Along with them, there are Ahmet Dawoutoglu, Ali Akbar Salhi, and Hilary Clinton who are also major players.
The Kurdish leadership is yet to know Kirkuk’s Kurds, not to mention other factions. Party members tell their leadership that everything is well with Kirkuk, not only Kurds but also Arabs, Turkmens, and Christians are also fond of the Kurdish ruling.
Don’t they ask why a Kurdish tribe held a meeting with Arab tribes under the title of ‘not issuing provocative statements’ on April 21? Don’t they ask who was behind it? What was the job of civil society organizations, and governmental institutions in respect of coexistence?
The Kurdish leadership thinks everything can be resolved through money, land, and 10 million of Article 140, but unfortunately they are wrong. Four years ago, I went to a Kirkuk industrial area to repair my car, I was not surprised hearing some Kurdish mechanics saying “Really? We are joining Kurdistan? Why?! in order to wait in a row from 3-4 am in the morning to get some fuel?”
